The Question of Bishops in the Global Methodist Church // Bishop Scott Jones Interview
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 08. 2023
- What will the role of bishops be in the Global Methodist Church (GMC)? In this video, Dr. Matt O'Reilly sits down with Bishop Scott Jones to discuss that question from every angle.
- What are the different models for the episcopacy in the GMC?
- How will the GMC decide how many bishops to have?
- What's the process for deciding what the role of bishops will be?
- How will decisions about bishops impact the mission of the GMC?
- How will decisions about bishops impact apportionments in the GMC?
Support Theology Project: paypal.me/theologyproject
Books by Bishop Scott Jones:
The Wesleyan Way: A Faith that Matters amzn.to/44ytMQA
The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor amzn.to/3YUTpdm
-John Wesley's Conception and Use of Scripture amzn.to/3PjvJMw
Scott Jones was elected a bishop in the United Methodist Church in 2004. He was received as a bishop in the Global Methodist Church in 2023. He holds degrees from the University of Kansas (B.A. in Philosophy), Perkins School of Theology (Master of Theology) and Southern Methodist University (Ph.D. in Religious Studies).
Dr. Matt O'Reilly is Lead Pastor of Christ Church Birmingham, Director of Research at Wesley Biblical Seminary, and a fellow of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
Books by Dr. Matt O'Reilly:
Paul and the Resurrected Body amzn.to/2xOJmyj
The Letters to the Thessalonians (w/ videos) amzn.to/3B0m6su
Bless the Nations amzn.to/3eEpiiF
SUBSCRIBE:
SOCIAL:
www. mattoreillyauthor
www. theologyprojectonline
/ mporeilly
VISIT:
www.theologyproject.online
christchurchbham.com
wbs.edu
This page may contain affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
What questions do you have about the formation and future of the Global Methodist Church? Leave a comment and let me know!
Saw your conversation with JM on Disciple Dojo. Enjoyed both that and your discussion with Bishop Jones. I learned a lot listening to y'all.
So glad you found them helpful!
Ditto
Thanks so much for facilitating this conversation, Matt. I really appreciated Bishop Jones' candor.
Thanks, Kenna! It was a fun interview to do.
Very helpful! Should help relieve many of the fears held by churches over having bishops! The focus is on teaching and vision, not a heavy-handed bureaucracy. The role is to shepherd churches, not exert power.
Glad it was helpful!
This was like a class meeting with the Bishop. Can the GMC have more 'technology' classes? What's being produced now, is there a GMC youtube channel and don't forget to work with other platforms, because youtube does have a problem with banning speech.
Look at what religious radio and tv stations are doing. You mention bandwidth....Methodists need to take the pulpit and the table to the square through media.
That's what we were trying to do. Glad people are finding it helpful.
The GMC needs to organize this and centralize it. There are several doing interviews and I might catch one if I happen upon it. How do we make it available? How do we educate, engage, empower with values and classes, e.g. How to start a class meeting. I have a FB page dedicated with many followers, that's how I found you, someone sent it for posting. But we need organization with these media platforms and planning. @@TheologyProjectOnline
Chris Ritter has a compendium of posts related to all this.
peopleneedjesus.net/2023/08/06/um-fallout-a-compendium/
@@paulthompson3373
Just found out about your channel from your interview with Jeffrey Rickman on PlainSpoken. I'm not sure if it is a question or a concern, but I have a worry about the episcopacy in the GMC. From my understanding so far, it sounds like the GMC intends on having term-limited bishops rather than the "bishops for life" that the UMC has. (Anecdotally, it seems like there is a general attitude against bishops among a lot of people moving into the GMC due to issues they have had with UMC bishops and the belief that UMC bishops were too powerful and should not have been able to continue to exert authority in the denomination through the Council of Bishops.) I can understand and appreciate the practical concern for introducing terms and term limits for the office of bishop as an administrative, but I am worried about the theological implications what the GMC believes about those folks once they leave office. The language I have heard so far is very concerning to me because it has sounded something like "once a bishop's term-limit is met, they stop being a bishop and revert to being an elder in a local congregational setting." Again, as an administrative reality, I can understand term limits, but I think it is important to distinguish between holding/serving in the office of bishop and ordination/clerical status as a bishop. I think of the fact that as Methodists we never re-baptize. No matter if or how far one has strayed or turned against the faith, one never ceases to be a member of the Body of Christ after baptism and is therefore never re-baptized. Likewise, even though we don't hold them as sacraments themselves, we apply sacramental theology to sacramentals like confirmation, and we don't re-confirm people, even if they leave the church, etc. If a couple is married and one spouse is adulterous, maybe they will choose to renew their wedding vows, but there's not re-marriage of the couple that's already married. When someone is ordained as a deacon or an elder, they may have their license revoked as a practical matter of employment, but if they returned to ministry, they are not re-ordained - they never lost or lose their ordination status. These statuses, graces, and blessings are never revoked or retroactively repealed by God. Along these lines, the consecration of a bishop doesn't disappear because their term ends. Thus, a formerly active GMC bishop should be able to participate in the ordination or consecration of new GMC clergy even though they are no longer serving in the day-to-day duties of a bishop. Thinking of the Anglican/Catholic principle of "lex orandi, lex credendi" (the law of what is prayed is the law of what is believed), I worry that if the GMC does not clarify theological points like this, then the practice of bishops reverting to elders after their terms will eventually result in a belief that the episcopacy is not an order, which not only would place the GMC out of step with the Anglican roots of Methodism and mainstream of Christian Tradition, but it would fundamentally undermine the theology of holy orders/ordination, and eventually that would undermine the sacraments themselves. I worry that with so much thought and effort being put into the practicalities of forming a new denomination that not enough thought has been put in yet regarding the theology or the potential downstream theological consequences of some of these decisions. And I get it, it's a lot of practical, administrative work that needs to be done, it's all still brand new, and there hasn't even been any General Conference yet, etc., so maybe these things are all in the works and I'm just unaware, but nevertheless this issue of what becomes of bishops post-term in the GMC has been bugging me for a while.
Really enjoyed this video. Knowing that it is a work In process, could Bishop Jones or others do a similar video around the process of making appointments in the GMC?
Thanks for watching! I've not talked with Bishop Jones about specific follow up videos, but I'll keep that in mind. In short, I think appointments will be made as necessary when there's an opening in a church. Bishops aren't going to be pulling people out of one appointment that's going well to put them in another appointment with an opening. Churches will have the freedom to reach out to multiple candidates they are interested in. Presiding elders will be in a position to recommend candidates they think would be a good fit for an opening. Churches will have the opportunity to interview candidates. This will, in some ways, be a continual process instead of happening in the spring during "appointment season". As Bishop Jones remarked in the interview, this is really giving all churches the opportunity that the largest churches have had for a long time.
I am planning to do some more videos on GMC issue going forward. So be sure to subscribe if you haven't already!
Again, thanks for watching!
One thing I would value as a GMC clarification or your theological perspective would be in relation to critical race theory. When your guest referenced race at the end, it makes me wonder what precisely he meant. In the UMC, “ministering to people of color” mainly means critical race theory (and a host of things that goes with it). What is clear from the growing non denominational world is that people of all backgrounds are attracted to the traditionally taught gospel! It could take 50 years of delivering that for the Methodist movement to undo the damage caused by not doing that to start with. As many of us in Bham UMC congregations figure out who to do coming up, what the GMC is or isn’t hanging onto is a question.
Bishop Jones mentions the current (and since 1939) of "resident" bishops to live within their assigned area. I'm aware of at least two fairly recent bishops in the South Central Jurisdiction (one who is still an active bishop) who never really moved from the area from which they were elected and either never "lived" within their assigned area, or at had a place to stay (and not really reside) in their area. So this is yet another example of UM polity really not being followed. I'll also add that none of the conferences based Texas (West Plains, Mid Texas, Eastern Texas) have Presidents Pro Tempore who are full time pastors; in at least two cases they are full-time in their conference leadership ministry. And these conferences are some of the earliest to form and farther along with development than most. Second, at least two of the newly formed Provisional Annual Conferences are also led by Presidents ProTempore that are (or soon will be) full time. I support the itinerant, general superintendent role for bishops as described, as opposed to the residential model. But in the absence of a residential bishop, the work of the President Pro Tempore is an even larger role and having a "volunteer" part-time President Pro Tempore who is also a full-time pastor, will not be sustainable. My two cents.
Is there a mandatory retirement age for clergy in the GMC?
Don’t think so
zzZZzzzz No, guys...the real question is does NT EPISKOPE have geographical boundaries/confines?...local EKLESIA or even one city with several....Only in the Pastorals do you have Timothy's SUPERVISION (I hate "oversight/overseer"--Confederate slavery connotations!!!) locally in Ephesus and Titus' (to ordain local elders) in Crete. Diocesan/Conference church governing areas are humanly concocted. Paul and Timothy were itinerant CHURCH PLANTERS/ADVISORS. I've seen Scott do ordinations assembly-line style, even two-tier ones simultaneously. Wow! That's production. The dough is definitely rising.
GMC bishops will do a great job keeping the church focused on its core mission - maintaining a myopic obsession with American grievance politics.